I’m interested in getting a Registered Trademark. A search for the word “trademark” came up with this : www.uspto.gov
Thank you John Mellor.
Right after Clark Foam closed there was some heated debate about the copyright of the Clark Foam catalog…
Copyright is very important but I’m looking for information on trademarks…
So , my log on is Stingray. Never thought I could trademark stingray. Made a cool little Stingray logo. We’ve got Corvette Stingray ,Schwinn Stingray , Stingray boats. There’s a stingray surfboard that I saw at the fish fry and more than one surfboard company with a Stingray model.
I did a Yahoo search and found lots of Stingrays…
Rougewave.com a Software company has a trademark Stingray software. Nice ugly circled R after the word “Stingray”.
Stingrayboats.com , nice site , all the boats say STINGRAY on the side. Read the fine print “STINGRAY is a registered trademark”.
Noticed that STINGRAY boats is all capitol and Stingray software is not.
A company from Australia…Stingray.com.au/ sells sun protection clothing. They also have a trademark on the word stingray but I think it’s the logo not the word.
Any one care to comment or share information about trademarks.
Stingray is just an example , I have other Ideas for brands,logos, ect…
I’m not sure exactly what you 're looking for comments on, but… Unlike a patent, a trademark does not need to be registered to be valid. The first person or company to use a mark in a consistent manner for a particular product or service has the rights to that mark. Use is the key. It is not enough to merely have created the mark. The purpose of registration is to create a record to document that use. This is also generally true of trade names and service marks (as subtly distinguished from trademarks) Another point, the further from common useage a name is, the easier it is to defend. The initial filing with USPTO costs $325 and is good for 10 years. At the end of that period, there is an additional fee to renew, and you will need to furnish proof that the mark is still in active use. I’m not sure why a small operator would go to the trouble and expense to renew. Since the registration is only for documentation - if you had an unchallenged registration for 10 years and continuously used the mark in commerce, that seems to me to be more than sufficient evidence to defend it in court if need be, even after expiration of the registration. There is much more info on this at the Nolo Press site:
As the man said, it’s the use in connection with a particular product or service - and http://www.uspto.gov/index.html includes a very nice trademark search. ‘stingray’ and ‘surf’ show up together in one instance, a surf band called the Stingrays from what I can gather. Nobody, up 'til now, has registered Stingray Surfboards.
If you wanted to make, say, Stingray Surfboards, well, you can. Nobody stopping you, nobody can keep you from using that name Stingray Surfboards and if you used it first then you can keep others from using it afterwards in the exact same way. If you’ve put Stingray Surfboards on your work already, well, there ya go, you’re set.
But that’s the trick: Schwinn had a bike called the Stingray and Chevrolet made a model of the Corvette with the same name. You can’t start making bicycles and calling 'em stingrays without Schwinn’s permission ( providing the trademark is still live) , let alone cars, boats or cellphone surveillance systems for tapping into private conversations in the questionable name of ‘security’… don’t get me going on that…
Registering said trademark- well, why bother? If somebody wants to spend the money to try to file for a Stingray Surfboards trademark, you have ( so far as we know) first use of it and you can dispute it legally which will make a patent and trademark lawyer very happy along with making your profits go away.
That’s basically correct, first use is the de facto standard, regardless of whether or not the mark is registered. However, “use” means doing trade i.e. selling products with the mark, not just putting it on a product. Additionally, a valid USPTO trademark has to be used in interstate (or international) commerce, not just locally or inside your state. It’s possible to get state trademarks, but if you’re going to register at all you might as well go federal. If you become really huge and the trademark turns into a highly valuable global brand (think Nike or Sony), you might even register it in other countries.
But first you need to do actual business in the marketplace. Document everything and keep good records if you expect to have to defend your mark someday.
And one more little tidbit. If you should have a stroke of genius and revolutionize surfboard design to the point that everyone has to have a Stingray brand surfboard or be shunned by their peers and all members of the opposite sex, you need to make absolutely certain that all of your advertising and marketing materials refer to the product as just that, a Stingray brand surfboard. Because as soon as the trade name for your wildly successful product becomes the generic identifier for a category of products (“Dad, you just have to get me a Stingray for Christmas”), you have lost the exclusive rights to its use. When in-line skating hit the big time a few years ago, Rollerblade was regularly in a snit over unauthorized use of the name, not because of the direct competition, but because they stood to lose their brand if all in-line skates continued to be referred to as “Rollerblades”.
CHANNEL ISLANDS TRI PLANE HULL Goods and Services (CANCELLED) IC 025. US 039. G & S: SHIRTS, PANTS, HATS AND BATHING SUITS. FIRST USE: 19790901. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19790901
(CANCELLED) IC 028. US 022. G & S: SURFBOARDS. FIRST USE: 19780801. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19780801 Mark Drawing Code (3) DESIGN PLUS WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS Design Search Code 26.13.12 - Quadrilaterals with bars, bands and lines
26.15.02 - Plain single or multiple line polygons; Polygons (plain, single line)
26.15.13 - More than one polygon Serial Number 73498437 Filing Date September 10, 1984 Current Filing Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Published for Opposition October 29, 1985 Registration Number 1379250 Registration Date January 21, 1986 Owner (REGISTRANT) MERRICK, AL DBA CHANNEL ISLANDS SURFBOARDS INDIVIDUAL UNITED STATES 36 STATE STREET SANTA BARBARA CALIFORNIA 93101 Attorney of Record C. LARRY POWELL Disclaimer NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE “CHANNEL ISLANDS TRI PLANE HULL” APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN Description of Mark THE LINING/STIPPLING SHOWN IN THE DRAWING IS THE FEATURE OF THE MARK AND DOES NOT INDICATE COLOR. Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register PRINCIPAL Live/Dead Indicator DEAD Cancellation Date September 11, 1992